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Corporate Money in Politics — Is It Bribery, Or Is It Ineffective?

Just why is corporate money used to influence legislation? It is either to bring about a profitable result, or it is not. For those who make the argument that bribing lawmakers is running the business, by benefiting the shareholders, the answer is that such a quid pro quo is bribery under our laws, and we should put the people making the decision to use the company’s money like this into jail.
But if they argue that they are not using the company’s money with the expectation of a return, they should be fired for using the company’s money and getting no return.
So which is it? It is one or the other. But both of them already are prohibited under our rules, just not enforced.
As long as we think of corporations as sentient entities we are keeping ourselves from identifying the real problem – which keeps us from fixing it. It is not corporations, but PEOPLE using corporate resources that are the problem.
We need to do is keep corporate resources from leaking out of the corporation. We need to apply strict accounting standards and laws about use of corporate money for anything other than running the business.